LIVINGSTON, Ala. – West Alabama softball rallied late but fell short, losing 7-5 to Shorter University in Gulf South Conference action at the UWA Softball Complex on Sunday. The win completes the three game series sweep by the Hawks.
Shorter improves to 27-17 overall and 18-12 in the GSC. The loss drops West Alabama to a seven game losing skid, falling to 16-30 and 6-25.
"We put ourselves in a bind during the early and middle innings today," said UWA head coach
Will Atkinson.
"We have another one of those big innings that goes against us and it's kind of hard to battle back out of it. Our kids showed a lot of resilience today. Both of our pitchers today gave us a really good chance. We made some adjustments at the plate and got our share of hits. One swing of the bat and it this could have been a totally different game."
The Hawks pieced together all seven of their runs through the first four innings, before the Tigers began to surge back.
The rally started in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI single by
Kristen Bittle. It continued in the fifth with an RBI sacrifice fly from
Devan Hines, an RBI ground out by
Audrey Diekmann and an RBI single by
Libby Davis.
Trailing by three runs in the bottom of the seventh, UWA tacked on one more run on another RBI single from Davis. With two runs and runners on first and second base,
Kristen Bittle stepped to the plate as the game winning run. Shorter ended the rally with an unassisted tag at third by Kameron Carter.
On a day when she was recognized for her service with the Air Force Reserves as a part of UWA's Military Appreciation Day, Davis led the Tigers hitting 3-for-4 with two RBI's. Diekmann followed 2-for-4 with one run and one RBI.
The Hawks led 11-9 in hits, with Kendall Johnson, Kameron Carter and Taylor Ann Oda each posting two. Carter homered for the second time in the series in the top of the first to finish with three RBI and two runs. Oda added two more RBI, while Johnson and Peyton Barthel each tallied doubles.
The Tigers finished the day with four errors, committing two in the fourth that led to two runs and one in the third inning which allowed the Hawks to score three unearned runs.
Payton Lippert (15-9) picked up her second win of the series, striking out five batters. She allowed two earned runs and six hits through six and half innings.
Amanda Medders (3-13) opened the first four innings, striking out three batters but allowed seven runs and 10 hits to take the loss.
Ashley Stassin closed the final three innings, giving up only one hit.
"I've said it before, you aren't going to have many opportunities in this league if you don't take care of the softball," Atkinson said.
"We kicked it a round a few times today and that's something that were going to have to address. I'm proud of the fact that we came out today and didn't quit playing the game. At one point it looked like we could go down under the run rule but then all of a sudden it's a two-run ballgame, a lot of credit goes to our ball club for not giving up and we're going to prepare this week to get ready for West Georgia next weekend."
West Alabama will close the 2016 regular season with a three game GSC series against West Georgia beginning with a double-header on Saturday. First pitch for game one is set for 3 p.m. at the UWA Softball Complex.
